James Comes!

We had a great visit with James this past weekend. The weather was beautiful and it was just a nice little vacation. I picked James up at the airport early Thursday afternoon. Thursday was mostly a veg day. I bought a new Wii game, MariKart, which was a lot of fun, even I liked it. We had Oodle Noodle for dinner (which is a very delicious Asian food takeout where you get your food in a box to eat with chop sticks). Friday Chris had to work during the day, so James and I went to the driving range, strolled around campus and went to the Public Library. I got a library card for which I am very excited about! I borrowed the Kit Pearson War Guests Trilogy and the DVD "The Illusionist". I had to place a hold for the next Anne of Green Gables book, but I don't think it should take that long to get. Friday night we went to Taste of Edmonton. It was delicious. We all tried different foods, some Japanese, Thai, and Mexican. I think my favorite was James' Belgium Chocolate Pear. It was delicious! On Saturday we went on a trolley ride across the river valley and downtown. We then went to the West Edmonton Mall, shopped a little, saw the fire breathing dragon, and ended the day off with a visit to the Water Park. Now James can attest too that it really is amazing! I'll have more pictures of that later. So those were the highlights of the trip. We're glad you came James and hope you had fun!

James and Chris waiting in line for the Street Car ride. They were trying to look tough.

This is the Street Car we rode. It was originally used in Melbourne, Austrailia until 1990. The street car bridge we rode on is the highest one in the world!

This was us crossing that very high bride, take note of the sign in the window, you wouldn't want to disregard that advice.

Birthday Weekend

Chris and I before church on Sunday

Thank you for all the birthday wishes from everyone. It was a great birthday weekend. On Saturday we went to one of Chris' friend's wedding. It was a great time. They got married in a beautiful Catholic Church in Beaumont and it was a nice ceremony, a little on the long side, but oh well. The bride looked beautiful and it was pretty warm so the groom had to keep wiping away his sweaty face, poor guy. They had their reception at a nice hotel downtown, and boy was it a party. The whole time I felt like I was in a movie wedding. The speeches were great and tasteful and there was good food, all the drinks we wanted (cranberry cocktails) and good music and dancing. They even had a professional belly dancer who got most everyone dancing, it was pretty cool.


Sunday Chris made me a birthday dinner. He grilled delcious and juicy steaks, with potatos, greek salad, buns, juice, and even sparkling cider. We had some friends over for some games and angel food cake, which was also delicious.


On the Monday the weekend didn't end, we went to see The Dark Knight. I liked it. I don't think I would say it is my favorite movie of all time, but it was still pretty entertaining, and definitly a good one to see in the theater.


So that's the weekend. Tonight we cleaned our place in preparation for James coming this weekend. It should be a great time, and you can bet we will be heading to the waterpark!

I got these birthday flowers from Chris' Mom (I like how they match my skirt)

Before the wedding ceremony, don't ask my about Chris' face, he always does this when I want to get a nice picture, he's definitely Sarah's uncle.

Here I am crafting while Chris is making me dinner. I'm currently working on this calender project, I'm pretty excited about it.

Chris slaving away at my cake.

The finished project, not too shabby.

Apparently we didn't have birthday candles, so we had to make do. I like the 'V' for Val

The classic action blowing shot, but notice the smoke coming out of my mouth!

There's always room for Jello!

We are headed to another one of our ward’s ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ on Friday and this time I am making dessert. When I asked Chris what I should make he reminded me of the Jello Salad dessert we had a couple weeks back. Although, this was one of those Jello Salads that wasn’t at all a dessert, it was one of those infamous Jello Salads we often hear about in Mormon culture. A couple weeks back we went to a sister in our wards 80th birthday party. Apparently she had spent the week preparing her favourite dish; a lovely Jello Salad. It was packed full with grated carrots and cilantro and cream cheese and I don’t even know what else! And it was all mixed in a lemon-lime jello base. It was pretty scary looking, but me and another girl at our table ventured to try a teensy, tiny, bite. Mine was full of cilantro so that’s all I tasted, but both of us agreed it was pretty disgusting. I know I’ve heard of other Jello Salad’s much worse than this. But I want to know what are the worst Jello Salads that you have seen yourself and maybe even tasted?

Needless to say, my dessert will not be any kind of Jello.

Just a couple of Farmers

Yesterday Chris got off work pretty early in the morning so we went to the Farmers Market in the afternoon. The weather was so nice yesterday and sunny that apparently lots of people had the same idea as us. The place was packed! We walked around and checked out the goods, and then got a hot dog and some mini-donuts to share. It was a nice afternoon. I spent the rest of my day finishing off the talk I gave in Church today. Then last night we had chicken and fruit salad - a nice summer's meal and watched Batman Begins in preparation for next week when the Dark Night comes out. We have a busy weekend ahead, but we are hoping to find time to take in that show.

FORE!

Last Monday for FHE Chris and I headed to the driving range to practice our swing. It had been awhile since either of us had held a golf club but it was such a fun time. We shared a large bucket of balls and swang away for an hour. Both of us have some blisters or scars on the hands to prove it. We finished the night up with a poutine from KFC. We both agreed KFC have one the best poutine's. Their gravy is just so tasty!

So yes I do know I am probably not wearing the best golfing apparell - flip flops and all - but I didn't have blisters on feet! It's gloves I need!

Chris getting ready to send that ball soaring.

Obviously this last one was staged...and I think actually the one before was too.

A favorite in my book

I just finished reading Anne of the Island, from the Anne of Green Gables series (on my lunch break), and it was so good. No matter how many times I see or read when Anne and Gilbert finally get together, I can't help but smile. It's such a good story. I've only read the first three, but I think this one was my favorite. I'm going to have to get a library pass to read the rest, since I no longer have anyone to borrow them from. But I think a library pass will be great to have.

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Sweltering

Happy 4th of July Americans! I hope you are all having a nice weekend break with good weather. We have had very hot weather lately. I’m actually starting to get a little colour…well mostly it is just lots of freckles, but at least it isn’t bright white like my normal skin tone. We’ve done pretty good keeping our apartment somewhat cool. It is nice being a basement suite. However, not everything in the apartment is staying cool like it is supposed to. This morning when I went to eat my honey nut cheerios I found that our fridge had stopped working. I think I caught it pretty early, because my milk was still good, just not cold. But the fridge had definitely stopped and everything in it was dripping wet with condensation. We’ve talked to our manager, and hopefully we won’t have to wait to long. They were going to try and get someone in there this mourning. I’m just hoping my apartment doesn’t stink when I get home. The plus 30 Celsius weather we are having certainly isn’t going to help….

Well good news, in the middle of me writing this, Chris called to say we have refrigeration. They had a guy out who fixed/replaced some parts, and now we’re all good. Whew!

Canada Day Weekend

So it really wasn't much of a Canada Day Long weekend because Canada Day was on Tuesday and I had to work Monday. But it was still a good weekend. On Friday I got off work a little bit early so we went to an earlier Temple Session. After we went out for dessert at one of the cute Whyte Ave dessert resturaunts and shared a Marble Cheesecake. Quite delicious. On Saturday Chris went in to work for about an hour in the mourning just to check on what the construction guys were doing. Then we headed to the beach. It was a little bit of a last minute decision, so we just went with ourselves, but it was a great beach day! It's no Grand Beach, but still good, and free. The weather was so hot! Probably about 30 Celsius. It was great beach weather. I don't know how I would have survived the day if we hadn't been at the beach. Sunday was just a relaxing day. We stayed inside and tried to stay cool. Monday I worked, and Chris has the day off. Who knows what he did all day. In the evening we went to a couple in our wards place and had pizza and salads and chips and these mini cheesecakes, and played some games. Good times. Finally Tuesday, Canada Day. It was a long day. We woke up early, about 7am and headed off to a free pancake breakfast at the Legislater building. Chris and I went with my friend Brittney. The Muslim Society of Edmonton puts in on, and they do a pretty good job. Chris had to ditch out on us to work, but Brittney and I spent the rest of day pretty much outside and around the legislature grounds. (It is only about a 20 minute walk from both of our places). In the evening we met up again with Chris and Brittney's fiance Kyle. We had cold cut sandwiches for dinner and watched Canadian Bacon to really get us in the Canadian groove. Then we headed back to the Legislature for fireworks, and it was quite the show. I think they were the best fireworks I have seen yet. We had an awesome spot on a hill so we good sit down and they were right in front of us. Some of them even felt like they were going to hit us. They seemed to have had a lot of new stuff this year, and it all looked good and was set up really well.

So thats our weekend. Happy Independence Day to all you Americans!